The future of Disney is pretty much just long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. At its big investor announcement today, Disney decided to go all-in on announcing plans for its expansion of the Star Wars universe, following the success of The Mandalorian. First up, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy announced plans for two new Disney+ spinoffs of that series, one focused around Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano and another dubbed Rangers of the New Republic, both of which will take place in the same era as The Mandalorian and will eventually cross over with the main show, so everyone can hang out with Baby Yoda or something.
In addition to the Mandalorian spinoffs, Kennedy revealed one big new detail about the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Ewan McGregor: Hayden Christensen himself will be back to play Anakin Skywalker, or rather Darth Vader, since that’s who he’s become (a big upgrade from Little Italy!). In terms of other big-name Star Wars characters being mined for new stories, Kennedy also announced that Diego Luna’s Rogue One character Cassian Andor’s spinoff series Andor will be out in 2022, and that the great Fiona Shaw is in the cast. Plus, Dear White People creator Justin Simien is working on a Lando series that will star … someone, presumably as Lando (maybe Donald Glover’s deal hasn’t closed yet).
In more experimental news, there were also a few tantalizing details about Leslye Headland’s Star Wars series: It’s called The Acolyte and is “a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” Spooky! Plus, as announced before, Disney mentioned that Taika Waititi is working on a new Star Wars film, and finally, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is making her own Star Wars feature. It’s called Rogue Squadron, set to premiere in 2023, and will follow fighter pilots on some sort of adventure. I guess it’s a lot like that PC game I had as a kid where I mostly just flew into walls.
